The Parts are Greater than the Whole
by RedCurrant
Summary: A strange creature is going after Artemis Fowl and Holly is going to have to warn him before it's too late.
1. Chapter 1

"I know you're awake, so you might as well stop pretending otherwise."

Holly sighed deeply and turned over in her bed. Glancing at the small glowing clock hanging from one of the walls, she saw that she had only managed to sleep for two hours. She grabbed the tiny hand-held computer from the nightstand and held it in front of her face. On its screen, Foaly smiled brightly at her.

"See, I knew you weren't sleeping," he said, cheerful at being correct.

Holly shot him a look of death. With more and more demons trying to get to the surface to heed the call of the moon, Holly had been working overtime and hadn't gotten a day off in ages. Just yesterday a group of female demons had been trying to get to the surface illegally and had caused quite the fuss when Holly and another agent had tried to stop them. Her body was still sore.

"This had better be good," Holly told the centaur. "I haven't slept in two days."

"Sorry, Holly," Foaly apologized, "but this isn't good. This is very, very bad."

Holly sighed once more and swung her legs off the edge of the bed. "I'll be down there in fifteen minutes."

Foaly glanced to his side, where Holly knew he had placed images of whatever the problem was on a large screen. "Better make that ten minutes."

Jinx was having a dream. In it, she was an infant, wrapped in rough blankets that scratched at her skin. She was being held by a fairy with a long white beard that kept tickling at her forehead. She was silent, but next to her another baby held by an elderly female fairy was screaming its lungs out. "If the monstrosity cannot be silenced, then move it from the room," a voice said grimly.

The female carried the screaming baby out of the room, leaving Jinx and the old man standing in a dark, circular area, surrounded by a group of fairies sitting atop high, sturdy chairs. "It has been proposed that the abominations be left to die on the surface…" the fairy sitting in the center said.

"Please," the elderly fairy pleaded. "Enough lives have been lost in this entire affair. If it so pleases the Council, my wife and I will gladly take the babies and…"

"No, no, that will never do," one of the seated fairies interrupted. "We cannot have the abominations running around Haven City. Imagine the riots it would cause in the street."

"The Council has reached a decision," the middle fairy told the old man.

Suddenly Jinx was awoken by the loud clanging of a metal door opening. She opened her eyes quickly, not bothering to let them adjust to the little light that found its way through the dusty windows. She shifted slightly, the heavy chains that bound her to the wall creaking and as she saw two figures walk up to her cell door, she cast her eyes down.

"Prisoner 948653, rise," the thick voice of a prison guard instructed her.

Silently, Jinx rose, her eyes glued to the floor. "You have a visitor," the guard said.

"My name is Holly Short," another person said. Out of the corner of her eye, Jinx could see it was an elf with pretty, auburn hair. "I've come here to speak with you about your brother."

Jinx kept her arms at her side, careful not to move. The last time she had moved without being instructed to, the guard had sent a dollop of hot plasma into her side. She still had the scar. "I don't know where he is," Jinx admitted.

Holly looked her over carefully. Her Gnommish was a bit creaky, as though she were not used to speaking. She wore the prisoner's uniform, but it was near rags, unlike that of the others. Her dark, uncut hair fell like curtains around her face, which was smudged with dirt. Her entire body was lanky and a bit awkward, but Holly supposed that spending so many years in a prison did not aid in one's growth.

"We know that you did not get along with…"

"Doom," Jinx told the elf. She almost smiled at the absurdity of their names, but knew better than to smile in front of the guard.

Holly nodded and continued. "We know that you didn't get along with Doom, but now that he has escaped, we need you to tell us everything you know about him."

The chains were digging into Jinx's wrists. "The guards know plenty, Miss Short."

Holly smiled politely and kept the smile even when she realized that Jinx could not see her face with her eyes cast down. "They did not know that you and your brother have powers, although they suspected it. And we have no idea what you two are capable of." She paused for a response, but Jinx gave none. "You'll have to excuse me if I seem a bit tactless, it's just that a few hours ago, I thought you and your brother were just stories parents told their children to make them behave. You know, made up monsters. I had no idea you were real."

Jinx almost laughed before she stopped herself. "I can't help you, Miss Short. I…" Before she could finish her sentence, the guard's baton came through the bars of the cell and struck her with an electric force in the arm, sending her flying back against the stone wall. She clasped a hand on the wound, which was already starting to bleed. "I can't help her because Doom and I don't have the same powers!" she shouted at the guard, backing up into a corner of the cell and all the while keeping her eyes on the floor. "I don't know the extent of his!"

Very slowly, tiny blue sparkles of magic moved up her arm, toward the wound. Holly watched, amazed, before asking, "How is it that you've got magic when you haven't been allowed to bury an acorn?"

"My magic isn't very strong," Jinx told her. "I can't heal without leaving a scar. I don't know how I have any at all."

Holly straightened herself, attempting to resume a degree of professionalism. "If you will come back to Section Eight with me, and tell us everything you know of your brother's and your own power, and help us in any way my commander may see fit, we are willing to grant you your freedom."

"Freedom?" Jinx looked up for the first time and Holly could see her eyes. They were large and golden, almost glowing and unlike anything Holly had ever seen before.

It took Holly a moment to recover. It felt as though her whole body was being squeezed gently. "Uh…y-yes, freedom," she stuttered. "It would be on a small island in the Pacific Ocean, where you would not come into contact with Mud Men, and a fairy will be up once a month to make sure you are doing well."

Jinx lowered her eyes again and Holly's body relaxed. "Alright," she said softly. Her Gnommish was getting better. "I'll help you."

The screen before Foaly displayed Holly and Jinx walking swiftly down the corridor, the latter wearing mirrored, expensive looking sunglasses like the ones Mud Men wore. He shut off the screen, silently prayed that his soul would not be sucked out through his eyes by the abomination, and opened the door just as the two females reached him.

"You must be Jinx!" he said, as free of paranoia as he could muster and sticking out his hand. Jinx looked at Holly, who nodded, before she shook his hand. "Please, have a seat." The centaur waved at a row of dark, soft seats set against one wall while closing the door behind Holly. She and Jinx sat down, across from the screen, and watched as Foaly flicked a switch near the wall so that the image of Jinx's face appeared on the screen. "We just need to record what you're going to tell us," he explained. "We need you to tell us everything about you and your brother. Start from the beginning."

Jinx nodded and straightened herself. She was out of her prisoner's uniform and in clean, soft clothing. Holly had healed her arm so that there was no scar, and she had cleaned up to reveal caramel colored skin and a vaguely pretty, round face. "My name is Jinx," she started, watching her face in the screen. "My twin brother's name is Doom. We were named by the Council upon our imprisonment, two months after our births. Our mother was Acacia, an elf of Haven City and our father was a Mud Man of whom we know nothing. Despite the laws against it, our parents fell in love and when Acacia became pregnant, she hid the fact, since all births of Mud Men and fairy have always been stillborn and deformed. However, twins were born, and so the powerful magic of the People was split between us instead of breaking one fragile, human body. Our mother died during childbirth and out father was killed in a fairy riot. After the Council imprisoned us, our fairy grandparents would visit us each week, up until their respective deaths two and three years ago." She paused a moment. She had not shown an ounce of emotion until she mentioned her grandparents, when her breathing seemed to come at labored efforts. She straightened herself and continued "They did not know of our powers. They were only there to bring us as much food as they could sneak in, and news clippings. Doom has destructive powers. He can burn through objects, I know, and kill small insects upon contact, and I don't know what else. I am a creator. I can fix what he messes up."

"How?" Holly asked, curious.

"I can bring back the things he kills, if they haven't been dead too long. I can restore the things he's destroyed. I can make things grow and heal and move. But my powers are weak since I've been in a prison cell all my life."

Foaly stared at her a moment before taking a deep breath and saying, "What about your eyes?"

Jinx looked up at him. "I don't know. Doom's are black and I've heard a guard say that they're painful to look at, but they don't hurt me. Our eyes are what made them think we had powers to begin with."

Foaly switched the camera off and Jinx's face disappeared from the screen. "We never had a seeker-sleeper inserted in your brother's arm because we assumed that as half-humans, you had no powers. Can you think of anywhere he might go?"

Jinx was silent a moment before she answered. "I can think of one place," she admitted slowly.

Several miles above them, Artemis Fowl was trying unsuccessfully to get his siblings to eat their lunch.


	2. Chapter 2

Anastasia erupted into a fit of giggles before throwing a fistful of spaghetti into her older brother's face.

"Well, at the very least, her hand-eye coordination is excellent," Butler noted, passing an embroidered napkin to Artemis.

"At her age I was using my hand-eye coordination to dismantle toys and put them back together again," Artemis said. "What do the newest additions to the Fowl family have against that?"

Aidan, apparently taking his twin sister's cue, tried to grab a fistful of spaghetti, but Butler grabbed the plate before he could manage. "Arty squish!" he shouted, pointing a chubby finger at Artemis.

"Perhaps another time," Artemis said, wiping his face clean and taking the nearly empty plate away from Anastasia. "Under controlled conditions and with some kind of compensation for my troubles."

Aidan offered the sole noodle he had left, as though it were the compensation just mentioned. "Thank you," Artemis said.

"Welcome," Aidan said, grinning widely to show the one tooth he had growing in.

"Alright, I'm back," Juliet announced, walking into the kitchen and half-hidden behind several large paper bags.

"What took you so long?" Butler asked, peering into the paper bags as his younger sister passed him. He took note of a yellowing bunch of bananas, a carton of orange juice, and a Browning 9 millimeter Hi-Power pistol. "I hadn't realized they began selling firearms at the market."

Juliet rolled her eyes and started putting the food items away. "I am responsible for the lives of two Fowl children," she reminded him. "I am always supposed to be armed, even when they are not in my presence."

"But orange juice is not supposed to be armed," Butler said, a remotely playful look in his eyes.

Artemis' pants beeped. He could feel the small phone in his back pocket vibrating to get his attention.

"Beep! Beep!" Aidan imitated.

"I hear no beep," Artemis said, dumping the plate he still held into the sink and walking out the back door of the kitchen, to the garden. "You must be mad." Anastasia giggled.

When he was safely outside, Artemis pulled the phone from his pocket and flipped it open, pressing it to his ear. "Fowl," he said simply.

"Artemis," Holly's voice came through. "How are you?"

Despite himself, Artemis smiled. He had expected it to be Holly, since only two people besides Butler had the number to that phone, and he had just spoken with Minerva that afternoon. "Well, I am alive," he replied, "although judging by your tone, I have the impression that someone wishes to change that."

Holly shook her head, impressed, and grinned. "It's probably best if I explain in person. We have to go to the surface anyway."

"We?" Artemis noted. "Is Mulch coming along?"

"Er," Holly looked over at Jinx, who Foaly was outfitting with a protective suit. She was not allowed weapons, since she was still technically a prisoner of Haven City's prison, but Vinyáyá had instructed Foaly to make her a suit and helmet that would allow her to communicate with Holly and Section Eight. "No," Holly finally told Artemis. "He is off working with Doodah Day."

"Then who are you bringing to the surface?" Artemis asked.

Foaly made a face. "That's a nasty scar you've got there," he told Jinx, noticing the scar on her side, just barely visible in the gap between her shirt and her pants. Jinx pulled down her shirt quickly.

"I'll have to introduce you," Holly said slowly. "I think you'll get a real kick out of this."

Bernard was almost certain he was going to cry. Now, this did not mean much, seeing as how Bernard was highly excitable for a sprite, but Doom made him want to cry even more. Especially when Doom took off his goggles. Doom, fond of keeping his minions in their place, kept the goggles off most of the time. His eyes frightened them. His eyes made them listen, made them heed his commands. He probably would have been able to make them anyway (he was about a foot taller than the rest of them, his hair was shaved in jagged, fearsome patterns, and his whole body seemed to exude bad vibes), but the eyes, with their lack of pupil and their pitch blackness certainly could not hurt.

"I-I-I'm sorry, sir," Bernard stuttered. The others were nowhere to be found. They were probably hiding in one of the back rooms. "There's nothing I can do."

Doom did not move. He was standing against one of the windows, his arms crossed over his chest. All the windows in the building were covered in yellowing newspaper, and the light that found its way through the paper was making Doom's silhouette look more than a little foreboding. "What do you mean there is nothing you can do?" he asked quietly.

Bernard's eyes would have filled with tears had they not already been. As soon as Doom walked into a room, Bernard's eyes filled with tears. He couldn't help it. Doom just assumed that it happened to all water sprites who were kept away from water too long. "F-F-Fairies can't go into the h-h-houses of Mud Men without their permission," Bernard said quickly. "They become violently sick and lose their p-p-powers."

Doom was calm, and Bernard silently thanked the gods that with Doom's back to the light, he could not see his eyes properly. "Well," he started. "Fairies cannot go in…but I'm not quite a fairy."

Bernard almost stood from his desk, where he had various tools scattered and newspaper clippings featuring the young Artemis Fowl, but decided against making any sudden movements when Doom was so deadly calm. "With all due r-r-respect, sir," he said, "perhaps it is best if you do not risk the loss of your powers over such a stupid Mud Man."

In a few swift steps, Doom was at Bernard's desk and had lifted him up by the throat, pushing him up against the wall behind them. "Artemis Fowl is anything but a _stupid_ Mud Man," he told the sprite. His eyes scanned Bernard's face, and Bernard could feel his whole body crying out in pain. "You and the rest of them will need to drill that through your thick skulls before we embark for the surface. I will not have you underestimating him and risking our mission."

He dropped Bernard onto the ground, where the fairy coughed and clawed at his throat. Even though Doom was wearing gloves, the skin around his throat had burn marks. "Apologizes, sir," Bernard wheezed. "I will get the equipment ready."

Wordlessly, Doom walked out of the room.

Jinx vaguely felt her brother's anger, but managed to ignore it, as he was angry the majority of the time. And anyway, she was busy being violently sick into a rose bush.


	3. Chapter 3

"Upchuck. Regurgitate. Disgorge." 

Jinx collapsed onto a patch of dying grass, wiping sweat off her forehead. "Thank you, No1, but I think I have it covered," she mumbled.

"Your body must not be used to that amount of magic planting the acorn has given you," Holly said, placing a hand on Jinx's clammy forehead. "We still have some way to go before we reach Fowl Manor. Are you sure you can manage the trip?" she asked.

Jinx took a deep breath of cold night air and stumbled to her feet. "If my brother can manage it, so can I," she said. She pushed dark hair out of her face before pulling the helmet Foaly had given her back over her head. The suit she wore had a temperature control, body stats, a communicator, and a tracker, but precious little else. If she wanted to be invisible, she'd have to shield—if she was even capable of it.

"Alright," Holly shrugged, carefully hooking Jinx onto her belt. "It'll take a while. If you start feeling sick, let me know. We can't have you depositing the contents of your stomach onto a pass Mud Man."

"Duly noted," Jinx said grimly. No1 smiled optimistically at her before rising slowly into the air and wrapping camfoil around himself. Holly's suit easily allowed her to shield herself and Jinx, and it was only a moment before they were off, Jinx quietly hoping to herself that she was not, in fact, sick on a human below her.

* * *

Grudgingly, Bernard helped the others load the makeshift egg with stolen Neutrinos, radios, and other supplies. "The big guy doesn't look too happy," a dwarf whose name Bernard did not know said.

"Does he ever?" Bernard asked, passing the dwarf a box.

"Well he looks particularly unhappy today," the dwarf replied. "He nearly bit the head off of J'opik."

"That's because he doesn't like demons," Bernard said. He looked back at J'opik, a mostly silent demon was probably just working with them long enough to get to the surface and who was currently keeping look out for the LEP. "And I don't either. You can't trust 'em. All they want is to get back to moonlight."

The dwarf rolled his eyes and pushed the last box into the egg. "You are dealing with a band of criminals and following orders from an affront to nature and you dislike the demon because you can see where his interests lie?" he asked, not expecting a response. He climbed atop the box and disappeared into the egg.

Knowing full well that the egg would not leave without Bernard to pilot it, he started back toward the abandoned restaurant they had been occupying the week and a half since they had been 'recruited' (If you could call being threatened with vast amounts of pain recruitment) when Doom appeared in front of him, goggles off. "And where are you going?" he asked.

"I j-j-j-just had to use the bathroom, sir," Bernard said, his eyes starting to tear up.

"We leave now," Doom told the sprite.

"I-I-I'll just be a moment, sir," Bernard tried.

"We leave now," Doom said, his voice laced with suggestion.

"Yes, sir," Bernard replied, turning on the spot and climbing into the egg without further argument.

* * *

"By the gods…" Jinx whispered. "Do all humans live in houses like these?"

Holly placed her down gently in the garden behind Fowl Manor. "Only the ones with massive amounts of wealth," Holly answered. She turned around and waited for No1 to land next to her, pulling off his camfoil.

"Uh, Holly…" he said softly. He pointed the spot where one of his fingers used to be toward the house.

Holly turned and watched as Jinx opened the door to the kitchen and walk in. "No, Jinx, wait!" Holly whispered, dashing forward to try to stop the halfling from entering the house. She did not manage it, however, and Jinx walked into the kitchen, glancing around her in marvel. Holly, who had jumped forward to try to grab Jinx, fell onto the floor, and looked curiously up at the other girl. "You're not sick," she said quietly.

Jinx turned to look at Holly. "Should I still be?" she asked, confused.

"Alright," Butler said solemnly. "Put your hands slowly in the air and I won't have to hurt you."

Jinx twisted around slowly and took note of a rather large Eurasian man aiming a gun at her.

She raised her hands without protest.


	4. Chapter 4

"Holly," Jinx said quietly, not turning to look at the elf who still lay on the ground just outside the kitchen door, "this man is going to kill me."

"It's alright, Butler," Holly told him, rising to her feet and dusting herself off. "She's with us."

"Sorry about that," Butler said, not looking very sorry at all. He put his gun away. "She's taller than most fairies and she walked in without being invited. I thought she was an imposter." He smiled at Holly, walking to the door and opening it all the way. "Come in."

As No1 and Holly walked through the door, Holly pulled off her helmet and ran a hand through her cropped hair. "Is Artemis around?" she asked.

"He's just seeing his parents off," Butler replied. "Artemis' father has business to attend to in Greece and they are taking the twins." He did not mention that Artemis had told his parents he was having fairy visitors and, under the twins-not-allowed-to-see-magic rule they had implemented when they decided they believed Butler and Artemis, they had decided to go on holiday. Butler did not see the point in telling Holly any of this.

"Can I put my hands down?" Jinx asked quietly.

"Yes," Butler answered. He looked her slightly crooked figure over. She looked like a plant that had grown in a box.

Jinx, not appearing to notice that he was trying to gauge how much of a threat she was, looked Butler up and down. "You're awfully large," she said, "for a human."

"You're awfully large," he replied, "for a fairy."

Jinx pulled off her helmet and Butler could see that she was not quite right. Her ears were pointed and she had the same skin tone as Holly, although perhaps a shade lighter, but there was something about her that was not quite…normal. Then again, he supposed, how normal could fairies be? For all he knew, she could be part of a fairy family he had not met before.

She was careful not to pull of the mirrored glasses she wore when she pulled off her helmet. As No1 sat down at the kitchen table, she pulled up next to him, fingering the edge of the camfoil he had sitting in his lap.

"I'll fetch Artemis," Butler told the group, sliding out of the kitchen, through the dining room and into the foyer, where Artemis was just shutting the door behind Juliet. "They're here," he said simply.

Artemis turned and looked at his bodyguard. "They arrived faster than I had imagined they would," he noted. "Did Holly bring No1?"

"Yes," Butler said. "And another fairy I don't know." He knew enough to know that Holly would not bring a dangerous fairy purposefully into Fowl Manor, but nonetheless his hand was ready to fly back to his gun if need be.

"Well, let us greet this fairy," he stated emotionlessly. He walked ahead of Butler back into the kitchen, where Holly was looking over images of something on a digipad. She glanced up when Artemis entered and put the computer away. "Holly. No1. It's good to see you two when you are not in imminent danger. Well, not in relative imminent danger." He turned to look at Jinx. "You're not a fairy," he said simply. It was in no way a question.

"You have different colored eyes," she said quietly. She looked back at Holly. "I thought it was just you. You have each other's eyes."

"Jinx, this is Artemis Fowl," Holly said, turning slightly to face him so that Jinx could not look at her eyes so curiously. "Artemis, this is Jinx. She's here to help us with a little…er…problem."

"What are you?" Artemis asked in Gnommish.

"Nothing," she answered simply. "I don't exist."

* * *

Doom looked over the soft green hills surround E-1 Tara and smiled. Behind him, several fairies were trying to get their grounding after a dizzying trip to the surface, apart from the one demon, who had already seemed to vanish.

"Which direction now, sir?" Bernard asked, looking freely up at Doom, as he had on his dark goggles.

Doom grinned. "That way," he answered, jutting a chin out toward the sun sinking into the horizon. If he had been paying attention, he would have realized that he knew which way to go only because his sister was already there.


	5. Chapter 5

"It seems contradictory to the nature of the People to keep infants locked away simply because they were half-human," Artemis said dryly.

"My brother and I are monsters," Jinx said plainly. "We are unnatural. Beings of two species aren't meant to produce children."

"Donkeys and horses can do it…" Holly interrupted almost absentmindedly.

"How were your parents able to do it, then?" No1 asked.

Jinx shrugged. "My grandparents had a theory. Each fairy has different powers in them, both destructive and constructive. In certain fairy families, the destructive forces just slightly outweigh the constructive ones, like in goblins. A human, unable to do magic, gets his body torn apart by the forces of chaos moving in him. But if you had two bodies to split the magic between them, then…"

"Then you and your brother are born," Artemis said. "Interesting."

"This is all terribly fascinating," Butler said suddenly, "but what does any of this have to do with Artemis?"

Jinx straightened herself. "My grandparents taught us to read," she started. "The guards wouldn't allow them to bring in books, so they had to sneak in scraps of paper, or show us news articles on their digipads. A lot of the articles happened to be about Artemis. My brother, well, he's angry a lot of the time. All the time, actually. He liked you at first, when you got ransom money from the LEP, but then you started helping them. You started preventing bad things from happening to the People, like stopping that deranged pixie. He saw you as a traitor and a threat, because he had always meant to break out of prison as soon as he managed to work his powers correctly, and you were likely to stop him." She paused, looking toward the back door, but shook her head and continued. "Our grandparents died and all we heard of your disappearance was from gossip between the guards. When you came back, though, he figured the time was best to get rid of you, so that he could take control of the People without any interference."

"Just how much of a threat is your brother?" Butler asked.

"Doom is…" Jinx raised her head again, staring at the door. "Just outside the manor," she finished.

* * *

The perpetually angry half-elf looked over Fowl Manor. "Well?" he asked in a low growl. 

"It's well guarded," Bernard told him, scanning the building with a small, clunky computer. From where they stood, they could just make out the front door. "Especially considering that it's guarded by mud men."

The dwarf from earlier, who was standing behind them with his stubby arms crossed over his chest, pushed forward. "But can we get in?" he asked.

Bernard turned and gave the dwarf a dirty look. "I don't expect you to understand the complexities of a security system that mixes mud man and fairy technology," he said condescendingly.

The dwarf rolled his eyes. "I don't expect you to understand the complexities of my fist going into your face," he replied.

"Do you honestly think that I wou…"

"Shut up," Doom instructed. He turned toward the dwarf. "Can you get in?" he asked. He had taken off his goggles to see better in the dying light, and the dwarf had to look down at the ground, pretending to examine its composition.

"Yeah, I can manage," he answered. He stomped a foot on the ground. "There's some limestone in the base, so it would take a while to maneuver around, but I can get in."

"Impossible," Bernard said. "You'd lose your magic the second you snuck in."

"Let me worry about that," the dwarf spat.

"Would he be able to disable the security system from the inside?" Doom asked.

Bernard wanted to punch the dwarf in the face. He had no idea what he was getting himself into. "I could instruct him on how to disable the radio jam they've got and then tell him how to disable the rest via a radio line," Bernard answered through gritted teeth.

"I'll get the radio," the dwarf said cheerfully, walking back to the pile of supplies they had left near a cluster of shrubbery when they had spotted the manor.

"With all due respect, sir," Bernard said, "dwarves are notoriously greedy. He could go in, steal something valuable and leave without ever doing what you want him to."

Doom grinned quietly. "I doubt he would do that," he said. "After all, would you want me coming after you for revenge?"

* * *

"Fire? He can conjure fire?" Butler asked. He almost groaned. It was like the goblin revolution all over again. 

"On the positive side," Jinx said, "he is often very stupid."

"There we are," Artemis said, half to himself and all the while staring at the television monitor in front of him. "Five sources of heat, about fairy-size. One appears to be moving underground."

"That's strange," Holly said, moving to stand next to Artemis. "He didn't try to break through the front. He's going around the long way, to the back door."

"Perhaps he believes the back door is a weaker entry point," Artemis said.

"Well, whatever the reason," Butler said, pulling out his gun once more, "I believe I shall greet him." The television screen showed the bright red and yellow blob that was the dwarf pop out of the ground and, just as Butler had walked back into the kitchen, knocked politely on the door.

"Well that's curious," No1 said.

Butler, gun at the ready, opened the door and aimed the gun at the dwarf. The dwarf shot the bodyguard a look. "I'm sure that even a human will agree that that's no way to greet a friend," Mulch said, annoyed.


	6. Chapter 6

"Do you honestly expect us to believe that you overheard Doom's guys speaking in a bar and decided to join them and help the LEP out of the goodness of your heart?" Holly asked, her arms crossed over her chest.

"Well…" Mulch said quietly, picking a small clump of dirt off of his shirt, "I may have assumed that there would be some kind of monetary compensation for my troubles."

"Why did they send you in here?" Butler interrupted, gripping the dwarf on his shoulder.

Mulch straightened. "They want me to disable the radio jam so that they can tell me how to get through the rest of your system."

Artemis nearly snorted. "They either underestimate our security, or intend for you to get caught," he said. "It would take several hours to disable the jam and several days for the rest of the system."

Mulch turned and punched the wall in anger, hurting his hand. "I knew that Bernard was trying to kill me," he said, rubbing his fist. "What do we do now?"

"If this Bernard fellow knows that the system would take days to disable, he would become suspicious if you managed to do it in a few minutes," Artemis said. "On the other hand, if he does not know this, then pretending as though you were able to do as you were told might work."

Jinx, who had been silently staring down at her hands, looked up at Artemis. "I don't think you want to do something that would let Doom think he can get in here. Trust me, the last thing you want is Doom in this house."

"I second that," Mulch agreed. "I've seen him get angry before and it's not something you want to have to deal with in closed quarters. It involves a lot of fire."

Jinx shifted in her seat. "How close are you to my brother?" she asked.

Mulch shrugged. "Not very. He has a sprite helping him with his plan, but he doesn't tell the rest of us anything about it other than what we've got to immediately take care of."

"Go back out there," Butler instructed, already recalling each weapon he had hidden throughout the house. "Tell them there were too many humans around for you to do anything. Don't mention that there are any fairies in here."

Mulch frowned. "What if he tries to kill me?"

"We need more time, Mulch," Butler said. "Figure something out."

* * *

Doom cupped the dead grasshopper in his hands. The moment he had managed to catch it, it had fallen over dead. He examined its lifeless body curiously, pushing its wings down gently before laying it down in the grass.

"Er…sir?" Bernard said quietly. "T-T-The dwarf returned."

Doom glanced up at Mulch, who was breathing heavily. "Well?" he asked, his voice conveying no emotion.

"The place is crawling with Mud Men," Mulch told him. "It's a miracle I got out of there with no one seeing me. There's no way to find where he's got his security system without getting your limbs torn off."

Doom stood, pulled his gloves and goggles back on and started forward. "You are going to take me underground with you and take me to the Manor's back door," he instructed.

"But sir…" Mulch started.

Doom turned suddenly, thrusting a finger into Mulch's chest. "If you don't get me to that back door, someone is going to die around here," he said, his voice dripping with acid.

Mulch shook slightly, but composed himself. "I can't take another trip again this soon," he lied. "I have to finish digesting this dirt or I'll only be able to make it half-way through," he said quickly and sounding as sure as he could manage.

"How long will it take?" Doom asked, looking back at the manor.

"Twenty minutes," Mulch said. "Maybe thirty."

Doom twisted around to give Mulch a look that made him glad he could not see the monster's eyes. "You have fifteen, dwarf."

* * *

Jinx stared at herself in the mirror, her glasses off and her gold eyes shining. She had to admit that she was disappointed, really. For the last ten minutes she had been trying to shield or mesmerize one of the others, just to see if she was able to, but it had become quickly apparent that she was incapable of either. How could she be considered a proper fairy if she could not do the actions that required only the most tiny amount of magic? Then again, she wasn't a proper fairy. She bet that Doom had taken those powers from her. Perhaps she had taken some from him. You couldn't blame a girl for hoping.

Well, at least she knew she could heal. She would be needing it.

Checking once more that the bathroom door was locked, she pulled a small pair of clippers out of the medicine cabinet. She only had a minute before someone would start to get suspicious and wonder why she was taking so long in the bathroom. Taking a deep breath, she dug the left blade of the scissors into her arm. The pain was sharp and her eyes were filling with tears, but she persisted until she had successfully carved out the seeker-sleeper Section Eight had stuck in her arm. It fell quietly onto the floor, covered in her blood.

Breathing hard, she waited until bright blue sparks had covered her arm before she grabbed a paper towel and quickly cleaned off her shoulder, pulling her suit back up and depositing the seeker into the trash, under a magazine that had been lying around. When the sparks disappeared, she could see that there was no trace that anyone had ever cut into her arm, although there were still ghost pains laced along her caramel colored skin. She cleaned her face and left the bathroom, trying her very best not to have a skip in her step.

* * *

Mulch screamed in pain, grabbing his abdomen. Or at least, he screamed in fake pain.

"Shut up, you stupid oaf!" Bernard shouted. "You will have the Mud Men coming out if you don't keep it down!"

"I had a friend who was a dwarf once," one of the elves who had helped steal the equipment told Bernard and Doom, leaning against the thick bark of a tree. "He accidentally munched down on a stone or something on a dig and it got stuck in his guts or something. Held his stomach just like this fella."

"This is ridiculous," Barnard muttered.

"How long did it take him to dig again?" Doom asked, looking up at the elf.

The elf looked down at the ground to avoid Doom's gaze. "A few hours, I'd say."

Doom pulled off his gloves, throwing them onto the floor and walking toward the manor. He had a stolen Neutrino near his left hand. "Then I suppose I will just have to do this the hard way."

Mulch briefly considered his options before opening his bum flap and digging as fast as dwarfly possible.

"I thought he couldn't dig!" Bernard shouted, starting toward where Mulch had just been. It was too late, however. The dwarf was gone and if they wanted to reach him, they would need a shovel.

Doom frowned, staring at the spot where Mulch had bit into the ground and then looking back at the stone gate of Fowl Manor. "He's gone to warn them," he said quietly. "That stupid dwarf."


	7. Chapter 7

If Doom had taken a moment to think about it, he might have come to the conclusion that simply strolling along the Fowl Manor lawn was a very, very stupid idea. While it was true that Bernard had warned him about the security system, Doom had assumed that the system was merely meant to alert the inhabitants of the house that someone was on their lawn. Honestly, he had no idea the house would actually start attacking him.

Several things happened all at once.

* * *

Mulch popped up from the ground, fresh as a daisy but much more frazzled. He reached desperately for the knob of the front door, which had been closer than the back door, but found it was locked. He banged on it furiously. In one swift, graceful motion, Butler opened the door, pulled the dwarf in and shut the door just as the night air echoed with the sounds of guns locking and bullets began to rain down on the front lawn.

"I came to warn you that Doom is coming," he huffed.

"Duly noted," Butler responded, carrying Mulch in one hand by his shirt and carrying a suitcase in the other. He started up the stairs.

* * *

No1 jumped at the sound of the guns firing automatically. He jumped again when Butler entered Artemis' bedroom and tossed Mulch onto the overstuffed chair tucked into a corner of the room. Artemis had been instructed not to stand near the window, but he could clearly imagine Doom rolling back off the lawn, into the bushes just as the guns stopped. He smirked to himself.

"Where is Doom located?" Butler asked, quickly pressing a button on Artemis' computer so that the thermal images of the fairies hidden in the bushes popped up.

Mulch scrambled to his feet, running over to the computer. He pointed at the tallest figure in the bunch, who was hunched over, closest to the fence. "He should be an easy target," Butler mused. He walked rapidly to a locked metal cabinet and opened it with a quick press of his thumb against a scanner. Inside, the others could make out the dark shapes of long, nasty looking guns, one of which Butler examined thoroughly before loading it with bullets. It took Holly a moment to realize that it was a sniper rifle.

"Wait," she said quickly, standing. "You can't kill him."

"Why not?" Jinx asked, jumping to her feet. "He's trying to kill Artemis."

Holly looked over at her. "The People do not kill," she told her. "We have to try to avoid such an extreme measure."

"Then what do you suggest we do?" Butler asked. "Because I would prefer it if Doom did not stroll into the manor and start hacking away at its occupants."

"I have a suggestion," Artemis said, walking leisurely to one of the drawers of his desk and pulling out a small box. "They're bullets which release a tranquilizer strong enough to bring down an elephant, if you came across one."

"What if Doom's biology is all weird?" Mulch asked from where he sat next to No1. "He's half-elf and half-human, after all. Maybe it won't work on him."

"It's worth a shot," Holly said.

Butler rolled his eyes and took the box from Artemis' outstretched hand. "No1, Jinx, you two stay here. You can see the backdoor from up here and if you see anyone near it, I want you one of you to get me immediately. Everyone else, come with me."

Holly, Mulch and Artemis soundlessly followed after the Eurasian manservant, closing the door softly behind them. No1 turned and smiled politely at Jinx. "I am perfectly content with staying here," he admitted.

"Agreed," Jinx replied. She waited until the sound of Mulch's footsteps had faded before she slipped off her chair, walked up behind No1 and touched him gently on the side of his head. In the next instant, No1 shut his eyes and slumped over.

Moving as quickly as she could manage, pulled off her Section Eight Suit and threw it under the bed. She pulled on one of Artemis' suits sans the jacket. He was taller than her and it was slightly too big, but she would have to roll up the sleeves and pants later. She pushed open the window and slipped out soundlessly, pulling it closed behind her.

* * *

"Carry me always, carry me well. I am thy teacher of herb and spell."

Bernard sat up at the sound of gunshots. He half hoped that Doom had been killed so that he would not have to deal with this whole insane plot any longer. He carefully slipped his Book back into his jacket pocket and watched Doom burst back into the shrubbery, breathing hard. "They _shot_ me," he declared, in case Bernard had not heard the dozens of gunshots fall onto the lawn.

"They have a pretty intense security system, sir," he said quietly, trying not to look the half-elf in the eye.

"How is anyone supposed to get a message to them this way?" Doom asked, catching his breath.

"Uh…sir?" Bernard started slowly. Doom looked up to see the sprite pointing back at the manor He turned slowly and saw a figure who appeared to be dressed in drag making her way across the edge of the roof.

"Is that…Is that my sister?" he asked.

"Does this mean we're too late?"

"No." Doom said solemnly. "It just means we're running out of time."

"If I m-m-may suggest an alternative, sir," Bernard said, fidgeting slightly. "Perhaps we should just leave Fowl alone. I heard his butler took on a troll once."

Doom looked up, curious and calm. "And survived?"

"Aye, sir," Bernard answered.

The half-elf stood slowly and let his gaze move to the bullet-ridden lawn. After a long pause, he straightened. "Forget it," he said simply. "The life of Artemis Fowl is a fine trophy that any criminal would appreciate laying claim to. It would be a cause for respect, especially for a half-elf with a grudge."

"But we're not criminals," Bernard urged. "Apart from the stolen equipment."

Suddenly Doom winced at Bernard could see that a bullet had managed to graze him in his leg. Bernard rushed forward and placed his hand on the half-elf's wound until bright blue magic wrapped around it like a bandage before disappearing and taking the injury with it.

"Thank you," Doom said, grudgingly. "Now tell me how to get into that house without getting shot at."

"Sir," Bernard started, inching toward the lawn to get a better view. "There are exposed phone lines near the base of the building. If we could access them somehow, perhaps we could communicate to Fowl that way. We could get a message to him that way."

The elf who had spoken to them about Mulch's phony condition stepped forward. "I saw a telephone pole about a mile back. We could…" He stopped suddenly, giving a great gasping breath and Doom and Bernard both spun to look at him. Directly in his stomach sat a sharp, bullet-shaped clear container which was quickly emptying its watery green contents into the elf's stomach. With a great shuddering breath, he collapsed.

"They're shooting at us," Doom said. Without another word he turned and started running back from whence they came.

Bernard lifted himself up and started after Doom. "Oh goody," he noted.


End file.
